Tudou Guarantee Rises from the Shadows: The New Dominant Force Post-Huione Darknet Collapse

When Huione's darknet empire crumbled, the crypto underworld didn't miss a beat. Enter Tudou Guarantee—the unregulated marketplace now filling the power vacuum.

How a shadow economy rebrands overnight

Tudou's ascent proves one immutable law of finance: where there's illicit demand, capital will flow faster than a DeFi flash loan. The platform's 'guarantee' system—a wink-and-nod escrow service—already processes more shady deals than some small nations' GDPs.

The regulators' dilemma: chasing ghosts

While compliance officers dust off their Huione case files, Tudou's operators laugh all the way to the offshore bank. Another reminder that in crypto's wild west, the outlaws always ride one step ahead—funded by your aunt's 'safe' stablecoin investments.

Vendors Shift to Tudou

According to blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic’s latest report, Huione Guarantee’s activity has come to a halt, but its exit has triggered a migration. Vendors are being steered toward Tudou Guarantee, which has absorbed a large share of Huione’s transactions.

Before its abrupt shutdown, Huione Guarantee was operated by the Cambodia-based Huione Group. It was originally launched in 2021 with the intention of facilitating legitimate transactions involving assets like cars and real estate. Over time, however, the platform’s listings shifted focus. Leading up to its closure, much of Huione Guarantee’s activity seems geared toward supporting cyber scam operations,

The authorities finally dismantled Huione Guarantee on May 13, 2025. This Telegram-based platform processed over $27 billion in transactions, mostly involving tools and services for large-scale online scams like pig butchering. Its downfall followed a detailed investigation by Elliptic, which led Telegram to delete thousands of related channels and ban associated user accounts.

Still, Huione Guarantee represented just one node within a sprawling network of Chinese-language guarantee marketplaces. These platforms, thriving on Telegram, allow the exchange of illicit goods such as stolen data, fraudulent tech tools, and money laundering services, which are all vital to scam operations.

Huione’s USDT Activity Nears Zero

Transactions are conducted entirely in Tether’s USDT stablecoin, which ensures the ease of movement and pseudo-anonymity. In fact, Tether froze a Huione-linked wallet in July 2024 due to suspected ties to the North Korean hacking entity, Lazarus Group. After Telegram removed Huione’s public channels and usernames, the platform formally shut down, advising vendors to migrate to Tudou Guarantee.

Initially, Huione claimed it WOULD continue facilitating private escrow services, but by late May, it announced a full cessation of operations. Elliptic said that its blockchain data confirmed this exit, as incoming USDT flows to Huione’s wallets plummeted to “negligible levels.”